A Bigger Hero Than You Thought
by sierra.steinbrecher
Summary: Hiro always loved inventing, tinkering with mechanics and wiring. And he was always proud of his best invention yet; the one that let him walk. Alive!Tadashi Don't Own.
1. Welcome to San Fransokyo

On the west coast of Japerica lies a jewel of a city, with its towering glass skyscrapers and clean energy windmills floating above the buildings. San Fransokyo is the home of the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge and one of the most prestigious science universities in the whole country. But beneath all that glitter and renown lies an underbelly seething with brutality and violence.

The Bot Fight Arena. A deceptively plain circle of paint drawn on the floor of many a derelict building and back room, with a tatami mat on either side for each player. Surrounded by a mob of yelling, screaming, betting punks, this meagre circle might not compare to the great arenas of the Romans or the Sumo wrestling arenas of Ancient Japan, but the battles are no less real, if more centered on circuitry than contusions. And on one particular night, in one particular corner of the side of the city most respectable citizens never lay eyes on, Yama held court.

Hands flicking switches, pushing buttons, the humanoid mountain on one side of the arena crushed his latest opponent. The Samurai robot in front of him didn't bother to sheathe its lethal-to other robots-saw blade behind the shield-shaped concealer. The pink haired punk picked up her robot. It had been impressive at the beginning of the fight, but with a huge rip in the robot's back plate where his saw blade had landed the finishing touch, that poor pink excuse for an electronic warrior wouldn't be intimidating anyone any time soon. But he had won yet another round, and the cash was rolling in. "Who's next who has the guts to step into the ring, with Little Yama?" He smirked to himself as every other challenger backed down. While it wasn't good for business, it certainly stroked his ego.

"Can I try?" A young-really young, so young it shouldn't have been anywhere near that side of town-spoke up. The crowd of now curious punks parted and a scrawny kid, barely into his teens, came forward. "I have a robot, I built it myself."

Yama took one look at the tiny black, segmented robot, and burst out laughing. If this was a joke, it was dead funny. Everyone else seemed to think so too, because the whole room filled with derogatory laughter. The kid shrank into himself, unsure. The officiator of the fight took pity on the poor teen. "Beat it, kid. House rules, you gotta pay to play." Hopefully that would scare him off before he brought the cops down on their heads.

But he reached into his sweatshirt pocket. "Oh, uh, is this enough?" He asked, offering the small pile of crumpled bills.

Yama looked the kid over. The money wasn't nearly as impressive as his usual stakes, but he'd been fighting all night. It was time to have at least a little fun. "What's your name, little boy?" he patronized.

The boy seemed encouraged by that. A cautious smile turned up the corners of his mouth. "Hiro. Hiro Hamada."

Oh yes, he would be fun to crush. "Prepare your bot, _Zero!_ " He deposited a thin bundle of cash into the dish, slammed his bot into the center of the ring, and thumped down onto the tatami mat.

Hiro felt the braces shift on his legs as he sat down with his legs crossed opposite the man who cricked his neck for emphasis. Really, another one of these types? He was so sick of intimidators. They really should learn to let their bot do to talking. And those guys behind him were probably the added security on the place. Ugh, Hiro hated sore losers.

He played along for that first round so he could play it up. Really, if the guy couldn't recognize magnetic bearing servos, it was his own fault if he got whipped by a kid. Okay, he admitted to himself, maybe most kids didn't know what those were either, but the point still stood. Well, time to play 'innocent kid' again. He let his arms support him as he leaned towards his downed robot. "That was my first fight, I…Can I try again?" he was careful to keep the tremor in his voice.

"No one likes a sore loser, little boy." _Hypocrite._ "Go home." _Not just yet. I get to tear you apart first._

"I've got more money." He offered the bundle of cash he'd won last night. That player had actually let him walk away without accosting him. Maybe he should fight there more often. But the fat bundle got Yama's attention easily enough.

"Fighters ready? Fight!" Yama whirred his saw blade and as the tiny black robot reassembled. Well, he'd draw this out a little longer, put up a better fight, and then call it a night.

"Megabot, destroy." And in that instant, everything about Yama's challenger changed. The robot's face changed to a bright red, still kiddish, but slightly more terrifying face. Its arms whirred as it closed in on its opponent. The boy Zero pulled his controller apart and one of the bystanders saw the advanced touchscreen with commands written into the sidebars on each side of the screen. His eyes were lidded, his hands deft, as if he was bored. Yama, on the other hand scrambled as the black robot began its assault.

Hiro was very tempted to take out the legs first. _See how he likes it._ But that wouldn't be sound strategy, and he had to get out of here before Tadashi showed up. He didn't need another lecture on handicaps and dangerous situations. So he dodged out of the way and ran circles around the souped-up toy. It flipped over the saw blade and separated into the three segments when the saw blade tried to hit him between one of the joints. His robot dodged a few more swipes before it got in close enough to do some real damage.

He taped the "climb" symbol on the side of the screen and moved his ring, pointer, and middle finger upwards on the touch screen. The three segments of Megabot did the same, climbing up the flailing robot easily. He moved his fingers to the right and tapped the 'clench' symbol on the side. The three segments tightened their grip and the arm popped right off. Quickly, he pressed the 'ladder' and 'hold' symbols and jerked his fingers. Off went Little Yama's other arm. A few more touches, with the punches added in for fun, and Yama's robot's head flew off. Easier than rocket science.

Megabot linked back into his original shape. Hiro switched the face and bent the robot at the waste. He smirked. "No more Little Yama," he goaded as he collected his cash.

On the other side of the ring, Yama held the head of his former warrior. "What?! This is not possible!"

"Hey, I'm as surprised as you are," Hiro said as he pocketed the bundles of cash. "Beginner's luck." He didn't notice everyone backing away from him as the mountainous man approached. "Do you want to go again?" Then he looked up and realized just how close the man was to him. He could probably hear the mechanics in his braces. "Yama?" Then the big man grabbed him and dragged him out the door and into the alley behind the building. The three thugs from earlier followed. Oh, he was in such trouble.

 **Hello, me again. This is another story start that's just sitting around on my laptop. I figured I'd get it out there and see if anyone's interested. Please review and let me know what you liked!**


	2. Caught Red-Handed

Brick met body as Yama slammed the slim teen against the wall. "No one hustles Yama!" he grabbed the small robot out of Hiro's hands and turned away. "Teach him a lesson," he said over his shoulder to the three thugs. One eyed Hiro's legs.

No. He couldn't get hit there, he had to stop them before anything serious happened or in time for someone to stop them. He was just a kid; surely someone would stop this if he held out long enough. "Hey fellows," he tried to plead, "let's talk about this."

A rumbling echoed through the alley as the three punks closed in. Bright white light flooded the narrow street and the punks backed up as Tadashi's scooter threatened to flatten them. He jerked to a stop and glared at his younger brother. "Hiro, get on."

"Tadashi," Hiro said as he leapt onto the scooter. "Ah, good timing!" The elder brother slapped a helmet over his wild hair and revved the engine into action.

"Are you okay?" Tadashi asked over the wind in his ears.

"Yeah," Hiro answered as he caught Megabot. The bot had done a good job, punching that Yama thug right in the face, several times from the look of it.

"Are you hurt?" Tadashi asked."

"No."

"Did they mess with your braces?"

Hiro rolled his eyes. "No, they're perfectly fine. Really, you think I'd let-"

"Then what were you thinking?!" Tadashi reached back and swatted at his younger brother. "Knucklehead!" Quickly, he put on an extra burst of speed and outdistanced the thugs still chasing them. "Hiro, why do you go off by yourself like this? If something happened to your braces, how would you get home?" He braked as the dead end of the alley came into view and quickly turned the scooter around. Hiro yelled from excitement when Tadashi took the ramp and jumped right over that idiot Yama's head. Oh, that felt almost as good as trashing the guy's robot in the ring.

Hiro rolled his eyes. "Come on, I made these things out of carbon fiber. You know how hard that is to break."

Tadashi grinned against his will. Sometimes, having a genius for a brother really made it hard to deliver a decent lecture, especially when he had a point. But he wasn't done with the teenager yet. "Well if you needed to get out, why'd you have to do this? Bot fighting is illegal! You're going to get yourself arrested!"

Hiro wanted to roll his eyes again. "Bot fighting is not illegal. Betting on bot fighting, that's, that's illegal, but so lucrative!" He brought out the bundle he'd won that night and waved it by Tadashi's check. "Just think of the new parts I can get with this! Maybe some rubber casings for the electric parts to make them waterproof."

Tadashi batted the bundle away from his face. "It's still-" Then he heard the loud wailing combined with tires screeching on the pavement. "Oh no." The exit of the alley was completely blocked by cops. They were so busted.

Before either boy could blink, they were taken off the bike, handcuffed, and shoved in the back of one of the many police cars. Hiro determinedly did not look at his brother's glaring face, so watched the lights of the city flicker by outside the window. Tadashi could say bot fighting was wrong as many times as he wanted, but that didn't change the fact that he needed that money if he wanted to keep improving his tech. Brother had that big fat scholarship to college, while Hiro only had their garage full of hodgepodge equipment to work with. He still refused to look at his brother when the cops unloaded them and put them through security.

Tadashi saw the metal detector and winced. He knew it was necessary, but…he took off his belt and shoes and walked through the frame without so much as a peep. Then Hiro stepped into it.

 _Beep!_ A cop rushed forward and grabbed his brother. "What are you playing at kid?"

"It's just my braces," he boy answered, rolling his eyes. He pulled up a portion of his pant leg. "See?"

Tadashi had to congratulate the cop on not freaking out and calmly stating, "You need to remove those so we can put you in custody."

He reached for the foot part. Hiro pulled back. "I'll get them back when I leave, right?"

The uniformed man nodded. "We'll give your brother his bike back too. Do you need anything after you take them off?"

"A wheelchair. I can't walk without them." Tadashi flinched. Because of his brother's braces, something he'd invented himself, the older Hamada often forgot that his brother was paralyzed from the waist down.

The cop nodded and asked one of the desk workers to bring the wheelchair. He asked for a regular plastic chair for Hiro and the kid sat down in it. He removed the slim headband from under his hair and the braces fell to pieces inside his pant legs, falling out onto the floor as he pulled them out or just jostled them enough that they came out by themselves. The policeman helped gather them up and put them in a bin that he handed to another desk worker, telling him to keep it by the bike for when the boys were able to leave. Hiro pulled himself through the metal detector, this time without the annoying beep, and was met by the wheelchair on the other side.

They slammed Tadashi into a cell with all the other adults, which was unfortunately packed to the brim with people from the bot fight the cops had crashed. Hiro had the juvenile cell to himself, but he would have gladly gone into the other cell if they'd let him keep his braces. He hated being defenseless like this. It was the reason his first serious invention had been the braces.

Aunt Cass came to pick them up a little later and the cops came and got the boys. Tadashi left to reassure Aunt Cass that both boys were fine while the cop who'd helped him earlier went into the bathroom with Hiro and helped him put his braces back on. Watching as the boy snapped each piece into place and finally put the headband back on, the cop was impressed by the level of technology. He expected to see that sort of gear at the college, not on a delinquent. "You know," he commented, "if you showed those to the professors at the University, they'd probably give you a scholarship or something." The kid just rolled his eyes and walked towards the door out of the bathroom and towards his irate aunt.

 **Please excuse me. I have no idea how it actually works when you get arrested, so if someone wants to tell me how it's really done, I can make this chapter better. But did this surprise anyone? I actually love giving characters disabilities since I have one. Please Review!**


	3. Aunt Cass's

A middle-aged, almost redheaded woman paced between her truck and the front of the police station, biting her thumbnail. She'd picked up the phone in the middle of beat poetry night, thinking it was just another customer. Her stomach had dropped into her shoes when she heard who had been detained that night. Hiro would be alright since he was still a minor and these things weren't taken as seriously, but Tadashi? What would happen to his scholarship, his public record? Were they going to make him serve time for this? Were they going to make-a door banged shut behind her. She spun around when she heard them and grabbed both boys in a hug. "Are you guys okay? Tell me you're okay."

"We're fine," Hiro muttered under the hug.

"We're okay," Tadashi assured.

Aunt Cass pulled back and examined Hiro. "You're really fine? Your braces aren't broken or anything?" She reached down to check the contraptions she'd never quite understood no matter how many times Hiro and Tadashi tried to explain them to her.

Hiro rolled his eyes and pushed her searching hands away. "Yes, I'm completely fine."

Tension released from her shoulders at the words and she sagged against the two brothers. "Oh good." Her face darkened and she shouted, "Then what were you two knuckleheads thinking!?" She pinched them by the ear, tugged them into the cab of her truck, and proceeded to lecture them all the way home while they held their still stinging ears.

She was just wrapping it up when they pulled around the corner and slowed in front of the café. "For ten years, I have done the best I could to raise you." They got out of the truck and headed for the small café, leaving the bike in the back to be put in the garage later. "Have I been perfect? No! Do I know anything about children? No! Is my house wheelchair friendly? No!" The brothers flinched at the reminder of the days before the braces. "Should I have picked up a book on parenting? Probably!" Aunt Cass finished unlocking the doors but didn't go in. "Where was I going with this? I had a point."

"Sorry," Tadashi said.

"We love you Aunt Cass." Hiro said. He really just wanted her to calm down at this point.

She whipped around. "Well I love you too," The café chef almost yelled in his face as she finally got the door open. Hiro rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and looked up at his older brother. Tadashi glared at him. They walked into the café and up towards their rooms as Aunt Cass bit into a donut from one of the display cases as she bemoaned the cancelation of poetry night.

Hiro escaped from his stress-eating aunt as quickly as possible and skittered up the stairs, plugging himself into the computer. Tadashi followed and hung his bike helmet up on one of the pegs on the wall. "You better make this up to Aunt Cass before she eats everything in the café," Tadashi said. Hiro answered absentmindedly. "And I hope you learned your lesson, bonehead."

"Absolutely," Hiro answered spinning his chair around and hiding his computer screen from view.

Tadashi peeked around his brother's fluffy hair and almost rolled his eyes at Hiro's predictability. He reached over and closed the bot fighting map. He ignored his brother's pout and said, "Maybe we should go down to the garage, see if there's anything new we can work on with your braces. You know, instead of you charging off and worrying Aunt Cass about bot fighting again."

Hiro rolled his eyes. "She doesn't know it's bot fighting," he tried to appease, but Tadashi crossed his arms. Big bro wasn't buying it. He let himself slump in the chair. "And the parts I need will just be kicking around in some drawer," he scoffed. "Hardware stores don't exactly stock solar panels."

Tadashi almost rolled his eyes, but they paused on the letter he'd gotten from his university. Maybe… "Well," he said, walking towards the stairs, "maybe we should go and check. I think they're having a sale right now." He lifted the passenger helmet from its hook on the wall and tossed it towards his little brother.

Hiro caught the object and glared at his brother with a considerable amount of venom. "I don't have the cash." _And whose fault is that,_ he griped to himself.

But Tadashi just shrugged and headed downstairs, helmet tucked under his arm. The younger Hamada rolled his eyes and walked down after his brother. He supposed he could follow along. A few minutes later he regretted it when his brother's scooter whizzed past the sign with his university's name on it. "What are we doing at your nerd school? Hardware store's that way!" He gestured behind him. Tadashi had whipped right past the building.

Tadashi parked in front of the snazzy glass building labeled 'Robotics Lab' and commented, "Gotta grab something."

 _Okay…_ Hiro thought as he slouched along through the hallways of the school's robotics center. _I guess maybe he wanted to show me a particular part or something, maybe._ "Is this going to take long?" He moaned to his brother.

Tadashi grinned. Sometimes his brother was just too cute. "Relax you big baby, we'll be in and out." _If he isn't struck by awe the second we walk through that door. Wasabi alone should be enough to get him interested._ Honestly, he could have had his brother hooked if he'd just shown him the amount of supplies they were allowed to order for their projects. Honey Lemon might spend her research budget on chemicals, but his went into machinery that you couldn't get at your average hardware store. The fact that Professor Callahan would be showing up soon would just be to cement Hiro's interest in the school.

 **So here's the third bit. I'm trying to write it according to the scenes in the film, but it's hard because some of those are shorter, and while writing this week I realized that, in order for this whole thing to work, the story needs a complete overhaul. I mean, the catalyst for everything in the original was Tadashi's death, so how does it work if I keep him alive? I did come up with something, though. Can't wait to show it all to you! Please Review!**


	4. Hello, Baymax

Hiro was just a little bit starry-eyed by the time Tadashi pulled him towards his personal workspace. They worked with lasers here? And it looked like they got to pick their own projects, from what he'd seen of that bike. There was no way something like that was an assignment. "So how much do you guys get for supplies?" he asked Tadashi as he looked around the main area again.

The taller boy shrugged. "That kinda depends on what you're working on, and how much you impressed the teachers when you auditioned. Honey Lemon got in with a great performance about chemical solutions to stop things like rust and corrosion easily, so she has a huge research grant. Wasabi has the least amount of the four of us, but he uses every dime."

"So that's why he's so uptight," Hiro muttered.

Tadashi laughed. "No, he's always been like that. Gogo drives him crazy."

He finally opened the door to his personal space and Hiro followed in after. "So," he asked as he fiddled with the arm of what looked like a plastic printer, "what have you been working on?"

Tadashi looked up at his little brother and paused for a second with a smile on his face. "I'll show you." He opened up the roll of duct tape and ignored the sarcastic comments as he ripped off a piece, plastered it on Hiro's arm and then ripped it off quickly.

Hiro's legs quickly scrambled backwards and the braces couldn't quite keep up so he ended up flat on his butt. "Dude, Ow!" He glared at his brother but then stopped when he heard a beeping followed by a whoosh of air.

Hiro stopped protesting as a huge white marshmallow-man inflated from the small red case sitting by the opposite wall. Tadashi gestured towards the white blob. "This is what I've been working on," he said with a hint of pride and a small smile. Hiro watched carefully as the bot stepped out of the red case and walked towards him with a squeaking sound from his legs rubbing together. It's legs bumped up against the rolling stool, but instead of just walking past it and pushing it out of the way, the robot stopped, bent down, and picked up the stool. It looked around for a moment, identifying the open space next to it, and put the stool down out of the way. _Wow,_ Hiro thought, _that's some pretty impressive cognitive functions. Pretty cool._ Then, problem solved it continued walking towards Hiro.

The mechanics in the bot's arm made a gently whirring sound as it lifted its arm in a loose approximation of a wave. Then it introduced itself. "Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion." Hiro watched how it tilted its head, leaned in slightly, and blinked what Hiro guessed were supposed to be its eyes. All were human gestures that the robot didn't need to do but were meant to put him at ease. And they did a pretty good job. "I was alerted to the need for medical attention when you said 'ow'."

"A robotic nurse," Hiro commented. Now all those little human gestures made sense.

The bot looked down at its front and Hiro watched as a screen showing various faces popped up. The bot must have a projector or something inside it. "On a scale of one to ten," Baymax continued as he looked back at Hiro, "how would you rate your pain?"

"Physical or emotional?"

Tadashi mock-pouted at Hiro's glare from his position behind Baymax but the robot didn't seem to notice. He continued undaunted. "I will scan you now." On Baymax's internal server, two spots lit up as he scanned the boy in front of him, his forearm and the base of his spine. "Scan complete." Another image popped up on his front, this time the figure of a man with the two spots Baymax had identified as problem areas highlighted in red. "You have a major spinal fracture and a severely damaged spinal cord. You must seek medical help immediately. Would you like me to contact the emergency room?"

Tadashi's eyes widened and he jumped forward. "No, Baymax, that's not necessary."

The robot blinked, seeming not to understand. "Spinal fractures must be treated immediately if the hurt individual wishes to retain use of their legs. The patient must be treated." With that the bot took several more steps forward, trying to get past the older boy. Hiro got to his feet and backed away quickly. Baymax paused. "The patient should not be able to walk with those injuries. I do not understand."

"Baymax, he's already been treated for those injuries. That's why he can walk," Tadashi explained hurriedly. This was not how he'd expected this to go!

Mercifully, that seemed to compute with Baymax. "Alright," he acquiesced. "But the patient should still sit down." Then the robot closed in on Hiro, scooped him up and a surprisingly gentle carry, and deposited him on the stool from earlier. "You also appear to have a slight epidural abrasion on your forearm. I suggest an antibacterial spray."

Reaching for Hiro's hand, he gently pulled the abused arm forward and was about to start spraying when Hiro halted him. With a bit of a smirk, he asked, "Whoa, whoa. What's in the spray specifically?"

Baymax answered, "the primary ingredient in bacitracin," he answered without hesitation.

Hiro decided to have just a little fun as payback for the scare earlier. He clicked his tongue. "That's a bummer. I'm actually allergic to that."

But Baymax just tilted his head to the side and, sounding rather puzzled, stated, "you are not allergic to bacitracin. You do have a slight allergy to peanuts," he added, pointing in the air to punctuate the point.

"Not bad," Hiro said to his brother over the big bot's shoulder as his forearm was sprayed. "I think some of his coding could use a little work though."

Hiro almost laughed at the expression on Tadashi's face. His lips were pulled back in a grimace and he nodded painfully. "Yeah. Maybe I put in too many procedures. I need to teach him the difference between old wounds and new ones." He scratched the back of his head and started pacing as Baymax finished up with Hiro and offered him a sweet.

When Baymax backed up Hiro got off the stool and started to circle the bot, poking him in the back. "Vinyl?"

"Yeah," Tadashi answered as he stopped his pacing. "Going for a non-threatening, huggable kind of thing."

"Looks like a walking marshmallow," Hiro remarked. "No offense," he added.

It was Baymax who answered. "I am a robot. I cannot be offended." His intelligence rose a couple notches in Hiro's mind. His brother had created a self-aware robot? That alone was pretty cool, even if the thing had almost landed him in the hospital.

The boy went up on his tiptoes and pulled Baymax's head down so he could get a closer look. "Hyperspectral cameras?" he asked. How had his brother gotten a hold of something like that?

"Yep." Tadashi confirmed. And he smiled as Hiro plunged his face into Baymax and questioned him about the skeleton and the materials he'd used. "Alright Baymax," Tadashi said after Hiro had finished geeking out, "We're satisfied with our care." Baymax nodded and walked back to his charging station. Hiro looked quizzically up at his older brother. "That's the command for him to deactivate."

"Burning the midnight oil, Mr. Hamada?" A voice said through the open door. Tadashi saw that it was Professor Callahan. A mere five minutes later, Hiro was desperate to attend.

 **I know I skipped parts of the film with this chapter, but I'm not going to write in parts of the movie that I wouldn't change. So just assume they happened exactly as they did in the film. I did enjoy massively messing with Baymax. What did you guys think? Please Review!**


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